Richard Roeper Blog

REVIEW: The Hangover, Part III

I’m Richard Roeper and coming up next, the Wolfpack is back and the stakes have never been higher. It’s “The Hangover, Part III.” My review right now.

SPOILER ALERT! Incoming plot developments!

Weirdly enough, there’s no hangover in “The Hangover Part III.” Perhaps responding to criticism that the sequel was such a carbon copy, director Todd Phillips has delivered a film so different from the first two, I’m not even sure it’s supposed to be a comedy.

This time around Bradley Cooper’s Phil, Ed Helms’ Stu, Justin Bartha’s Doug and Zach Galifianakis’ Alan aren’t reunited for a party. They’re actually taking Alan to rehab when John Goodman’s Marshall and his henchmen run the boys right off the road. Now they’ve got to deliver the notorious Mr. Chow to Marshall, or the hapless Doug will die.

We keep waiting for the orgiastic party scene, the celebrity cameo, the cringe-inducing humor, the two-headed hookers, who knows what else, followed by the inevitable waking-up-on-the-floor hangover. And waiting.

There are a few big laughs—many of them given away in the trailer—and one terrifically choreographed scene set on the rooftop of Caesars Palace. But most of the time, the boys and Mr. Chow are involved in a rough game of cat-and-mouse—and when there’s violence, it’s not usually played for laughs. It’s played for violence.

Alan is by far the most interesting character in the “Hangover” movies and he gets a bulked-up role here, playing a 42-year-old man-child. He’s clearly deranged and in need of help, but you hope when they “fix” him, they don’t change him too much. That’s pretty much how it goes with “The Hangover, Part III.” They went for the big fix, but they might have changed things just a little too much. I give it a C+.